Generally, in many cases, a customer who is the owner of a photographic film wants either a photographic process of a so-called simultaneous print process in which a developing process for an undeveloped photographed photographic film and a printing process for obtaining a print by printing an image on the developed photographic film to a photographic paper are conducted, a so-called negative film printing process in which only a printing process for obtaining a print by printing an image on a developed photographic film to a photographic paper is conducted, or a so-called only developing process in which only a developing process for an undeveloped photographed photographic film is conducted, and orders such the processes for a photographic film process handling shop (hereinafter merely referred to as a handling shop).
Some handling shops conduct the above processes in their shop. On the other hand, some handling shops which receives a great number of orders from customers transfer the orders of customers to a so-called a large-scale photo-finishing laboratory that is a trader to conduct photographic processes in response to the orders of customers transferred from a plurality of handling shops. Further, as rare cases, a customer directly orders the photographic processes to the large-scale photo-finishing laboratory.
The handling shop passes the Large-Labo with the order of a customer over a bag in which an undeveloped film or a developed film of the customer is packaged. On the bag, the following information is recorded: the name of the customer, a phone number of the customer, a receiving date on which the order is received, a finishing date on which the ordered photographic process is completed, the name of a film maker, an ordered photographic process such as the simultaneous print process or the negative film printing process, an identified information of a film frame to which a printing process is requested in the case of the negative film printing process, print-number information of the film frame, a print size which herein means a width size of a photographic paper to which an image of the developed photographic film is printed, for example, E or L size, a surface quality of photographic paper such as glossy or silk, and so on. All of the above information is not necessarily recorded, and the above information may be selectably recorded as needed. Further, another information may be recorded. In the case that a customer directly orders photographic processes to a large-scale photo-finishing laboratory, the undeveloped photographed photographic film of the customer is packed in such the bag and is passed over to the large-scale photo-finishing laboratory. Generally, in such the bag, a number of pieces of undeveloped photographed photographic film or developed photographic film corresponding to one order of a customer is packed. Herein, the one order means a unit of orders by which a roll of photographic film is handled as the maximum. For example, a roll of 135-type film packaged in a 135-type film cartridge, or one or more pieces of cut-out photographic film separated from a roll of 135-type photographic film is handled by the one order.
When a large-scale photo-finishing laboratory receives an undeveloped photographed photographic film or a developed photographic film packed in a bag mentioned above, the large-scale photo-finishing laboratory conducts photographic processes in accordance with a request of a customer recorded on the bag. With regard to the undeveloped photographed photographic film, plural undeveloped photographed photographic films are spliced with a splice tape so as to form a long roll and then are subjected to photographic processes. The photographic film to which the photographic processes in accordance with the request of the customer are completed is packaged in the above bag for each order and is returned to a handling shop or directly to the customer.
Incidentally, since the plural photographic films which are jointed to each other with a splicing tape is finally returned for each order to a handling shop or directly to a customer in the bag together with printing papers if requested, the joint section of the plural photographic films are separated by peeling off the splicing tape or by cutting out the joint section. The work to separate the joint section is one of major causes to lower the processing efficiency of the photographic processes in the large-scale photo-finishing laboratory. To counter such the problem, it may be considered that an undeveloped photographed photographic film is processed for each order without splicing plural undeveloped photographed photographic film. In a current photographic process in a Large-Labo, it is necessary to shift a photographic film and a back packaged the photographic film in a form capable of identifying each other in order to get information necessary for the photographic process. In the case that plural photographic films are spliced, since a processing order of the plural photographic films are simply determined by the splicing order, if the backs are arranged their order in a form matching with the splicing order of the plural photographic films, a corresponding relationship between the bags and the plural photographic films may be maintained. However, in the case that the plural photographic film are processed for each order without being spliced, since the processing order of the plural photographic film may not be simply determined, it may be difficult to maintain the corresponding relationship between the bags and the plural photographic films. As a result, the information recorded on the bag may not be utilized for the photographic processes. Further, when a negative film printing process is conducted in a large-scale photo-finishing laboratory, a developed photographic film is processed for each order without being engaged with another developed photographic film with a splicing tape. Accordingly, as same as the case that an undeveloped photographic film is processed for each order without being engaged with another undeveloped photographic film with a splicing tape, it may be difficult to maintain the corresponding relationship between the bags and the plural developed photographic films.
As a result, also, the information recorded on the bag may not be utilized for the photographic processes. Further, there may be raised a big problem that a destination of a photographic film in a photographic processing system may not be determined.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a photographic processing system and a method of determining a destination to which a photographic film is conveyed, for solving the above problem in the case that a photographic film is processed for each order without splicing with another photographic film.